Hello, wonder if anyone can help please, my son was involved in an accident on the 20th Dec 2009, his car was taken away to the insurers approved garage, my son was a fault due to icy road condidtions. Son has fully comp insurance. After many phone calls (at least the first 3 telling him that he was not covered for a courtesy car or hire car,) although son was reading details of document out over the phone, he has paid addional premium for hire car cover., by 22nd of Dec they agreed that yes he was covered for courtesy car and Hire car but they had to wait until car damage had been assessed, they informed my son that this would not be done ' this side of Christmas'. On the 29/30 Dec son tried phoning insurerers... no answer !!! On 31st answer machine was on saying they were now closed until 4th Jan 2009. He phoned Ombudsman on the 4th Jan, today 5th Jan a company called saying that they had been advised by insurers to make an offer to my son. He is not happy with offer, he spoke with insurance company, they say that they do not know about offer!!! Maybe just not showing on their system yet, he asked about Hire car again, they have said yes he can have one but they need proof that car is a write off..... he phoned people/garage making offer asked that they fax details of offer to the insurance companies hire car dept, they will not fax, but will email, son has asked hire car dept to call him when they have email (this will not happen and calls have cost him a fortune on mobile to high cost number). He also asked about cancelling his insurance at the end of Jan, they have told him that as he pays monthly, he CANNOT cancel insurance (insurance started middle of Nov 2009) and that he must continue paying each month for the rest of the year???? is this correct...... this has been a complete mess can someone please advise if this is all correct, and what he should now do. :? please please

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me pleased. My daughter has just phoned. Her partner is self employed and it seems that my daughter gave the wrong bank account number (got two digits back to front) to his current employer last week. Her partners wages have now been paid...but of course into the wrong account, she has spoken with the recieving bank and they have confirmed that the 'wrong account number' is a live account and that the money has in fact gone into that account. The recieving bank has informed her that ' his employer' needs to speak with his bank and see if they will take any action to try to recover the funds on his behalf. The ' employer' has spoken with his bank (he has a business account with them) and it seems that they are telling him that because it was his error (my daughters really) that there is nothing that they can do....... This is an amount of £3000 for a job that daughters partner has completed, and now of course they have money..... I know my daughter has made a terrible error, but is that correct that the bank do not have to do anything to try and help resolve this and that the person who owns the ' other/wrong account can now have that money? Would appreciate any advice at all because as you can imagine my daughter is feeling quite ' sick ' about all of this.

Hello, I am not sure where I should post this issue, so please forgive me if its in the wrong place. My son has had a credit card account with American Express for over a year, at the time of taking on the account he transferred some outstanding balance from another credit card as American Express where offing a life time fixed rate for this balance, so thats all fine. My son has also used his card for purchases at the ' normal ' rate. he has been paying the 'minimum' amount of this purchase balance every month. But he noticed on his statement last month that the 'minimum amount' payment has doubled, he contacted American Express and the lady explained that it states in the small print that they are able to do this, and the reasons for now doing this is because of the cuurrent economic climate, because of that they want to get their money back faster. My son has pointed out that everyone is affected by this but he still has to meet all his other bills and mortgage etc and by them doubling his minimum amount payment it is making this difficult for him. Is it right that credit card/lenders can just double up their minimum payments like this? Hope someone can help me with this.

Hi, Thanks to both for your replies. I will follow up and help Mum do this, will keep you updated as to the outcome.

I hope someone can help me, my elderly mother has just phoned me. She had applied to help with heating etc via the ' Warm Front Scheme' after they had made the checks she was advised that she is entitled to have her electric heaters replaced as they are old therefore not efficent. My mother was told that she would be contacted at least a day or two before someone came out to replace the heaters as she would need to turn the heating off the day before so that the heaters could be replaced. Mum had not had any calls but it seems that this morning two men arrived at her house from Southern Electricity to replace the heaters, she exlained that she had not had any calls so therefore had not turned the heating off in advance, so heaters where HOT. The men told her that this would not be a problem and that they would still be able to carry out their work as long as they were careful. The heaters were removed from mum's wall (they are storage heaters so have a heating brick inside.) The men have left 2 big burns in my mums living room carpet and one in her hallway. They were very sorry about this, and when my mum signed the paperwork regarding the job, she wrote that she was not happy because of the burns to her carpets. The men from Southern Electric asked her is she is insured (which she is) and have told her that she will need to make a claim. Mum has been in touch with her insurance company and they are prepared to cover this, but I was wondering if this is the correct way of doing things, should not Southern Electric pay for this damage and then claim from their insurers ? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.:?

Hi, Thanks for this, now I understand it better, at least I know that its being done the way that it should and that I am not being cheated. Once again thanks to all for your help.

Hi, Thanks for quick responses, On the Key Facts Document, in the description part of the Borrowing, it states the following: "We guarantee for the life of the loan that, within 1 calandar month of a Bank of England base rate reduction, we will amend our Home Buyer Mortgage variable rate so that it is not more than 1% above the Bank of England base rate " Hope that this helps...............:-?

Hi, I wonder if any one can help me please, in 2002 I took out a Mortgage with HSBC, it was a standard variable repayment mortgage, but with a inbuilt guarantee that interest charged would never be more than 1% above the Bank base Rate. I looked into changing my mortage last year and when I spoke to one of the HSBC mortgage advisors he even advised me then that I would not get the same deal as they are not offered anymore, which was all fine and I continued with my same mortgage. But I have recently realised that on all occasions that the base rate was changed and went lower, I was notified that my mortgage repayments would be reduced but each time it was a couple of months later ( when the base rate increased, I was notified that the increase in my mortgage repayments would take effect straight away.) I have been considering what I should or could do about this for a while now, and I have realised when reading todays news that they HSBC do not intend to pass on the latest rate cut to any of its customers....... Does anyone know if I am able to anything about any of this please? Would help to know if I have the right to address this issue with the bank or not.

A BIG BIG Thanks to everybody for all of their help and encourgement, I will let you know how things go. Yes, I am keeping my fingers crossed for Dad, he had major Bowel surgery in March and 2 weeks ago he had Liver Surgery, so far he seems to be recovering well from the operations, just praying that he will now stay with us for longer than expected. Once again mnay thanks:D

Hi Maroondevo52, Thanks so much for your quick response, I will use this letter and get it sent to the company first thing tomorrow morning. I will keep the post updated with any further developments, hopefully after this they will leave my parents alone, and track down the correct debtor. Cheers:D

Hi I wonder if anyone can help me please, A couple of years ago my parents recieved a few letters from Cabot demanding payment for an outstanding debt which was a few thousand pounds. Once my parents told me about this, I phoned the company and informed then that my parents knew nothing about the debt and told them not to harress them anymore as they are both elderly and this was bad for their health etc. That was back in 2005. the never heard anything further. They only moved to taht address in 2002. Now my mother has just been on the phone to me it seems that my father has receieved another letter this week, demanding over £4000 (my father has never, ever bought anything on credit, he will not even get a credit card, at the bottom of the letter a contact number is provided to call if ' you are not the person named' my Mum has tried calling this a couple of times but she just gets cut off.......... The letter states that they have until 12 noon on the 2nd Sept to pay the debt up in full. My father called another number shown on the letter to explain that he knows nothing about this debt, ( yes ,the name and address used on the letter is my fathers but his middle intials are not being shown and my dad always signs everything using all his intials) but the woman on the phone just got nasty with him and then he hung up. Both my parents are very upset over this, they are both elderly in there late 70's and on top of this my father has had two major operations over the last 5 months for cancer.... this sort of harrassment is not helping him at all, what can/should they do now, as I say they now only have a couple of days left before they MUST pay up........ My parents have always struggled but they would never buy anything on credit, could anyone please help me to help them with this matter.

Hi Yaffsimone, What a nightmare of a time you have had, I will keep fingers crossed that we do not get the same........... but watch this space because I will certainly mention it if we do. I am going to send the letter as mentioned, thanking them (Littlewoods) for their help etc etc:-D, and inform them that we will leave as is and will not resume our case for money that my son has overpaid, this includes interest (which of course we have no details about as there is no CCA) on the understanding that they clear off from the credit agency file, I will also send the Section 10 that Godmother has sent to me.So we will wait and see what happens next Cheers everyone for all your help so far, could not have got this far without it.

:)Hi Thanks for the replys, Godmother, I will pm you regarding the section 10 request. Wednesday, I was also thinking along the same lines.... how can they do this when they have admitted that no signed credit agreement is in place... but I have been reading through other theads and there has been some conflicting answers regarding the rights of Littlewoods etc to be able to link your info to a CRA without your consent ????? I was wondering if I where to reply back saying that we accept what they are saying and that we are prepared to leave as is and that we will not go through with the court claim for overpaid monies on the understanding they remove this default as we have not signed anything to allow them to share our information with any 3rd parties.... Does anyone think that this would be the way to go.

well at long last my son has heard from Littlewoods (so dont know what Brian Carter Solicitors were playing at)!. This is some of what Littlewoods have had to say: 1: In Relation To the Credit Agreement, Our records so that a letter CCA was sent on the 13/03/07 in response to you request for a copy of the credit agreement, under sections 77 and 78 of the consumer credit act 1974 we are required to provide a copy of the executed agreement(if any). on the assumption that you have signed the agreement supplied to you at the time of opening your account, our letter of 31/08/07 complies with the requirements of the consumer credit (Cancellation Notices and Copies of Documents) Regulations 1983. I can confirm that we do not hold a signed credit agreement for this account. in the absence of a signed credit agreement, I can confirm that we will not be pursuing the above account for the outstanding balance of £395.33 however, if we subsequently locate this agreement, we reserve the right to recommence collection activity. There is however, clear evidence of an exsisting credit relationship between ourselves. the debt, remains unsatisfied, this will be noted on our internal file for future ref. This info will also form part of your records at the credit ref Agencies where we share info. the info regarding your outstanding balance will remain on your Credit Ref file for 6 yrs. 2: In relation to Admin Chgs applied to your Acc: It is made clear in the ' Your Account ' section at the back of your book that a charge is applied should you fail to make a payment and as such I am satisfied that the chgs applied to your acc are fair and reasonable. we are aware of the statement of the OFT position regarding fair chgs. for the reasons given above, we are satisfied that the other Chgs applied to your account are justifiable in accordance with the views of the OFT and are fair within the Unfair terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations. The copmany is not prepared to remove any Chgs from your Acct. 3: In relation to Extra Care Ins: The original insurance was offer to you on the telephone on 06/09/02, premiums started being applied on 14/09/02. At the time a certificate of insurance was sent to you outlining all the terms of the cover. the cert of Ins highlighted the various benefits along with the relevant exclusions. Our advisors offer ECI using a sales script and the advisor would have read through the script to check for eligibility for cover. ECI is offered to our customers after we have informed them that credit has been granted...... and so it goes on, then they mention the following As your complaint is in relation to an event before 06/04/07, unfortunately you are unable to refer your complaint to the FOS as we were not a member of a Dispute resolution Service until this date. and to that end you may consider this letter as our Final response. My son is quite happy about this, is not worried about getting money back that has already been paid, just happy to get rid of the ' so called outstanding debt ' but he would really like to get this removed from the Credit Ref Agencies files................... Has any one any ideas as to what we should/could we do now to try and get this removed?

Hi, I hope that someone might be able to help/clarify some details for me. I will try to explain as briefly as possible. Last Aug 2008 as my son leftthe Gym car park the barriers came down on his car causing a lot of damage, he was told by an employee that the barriers were faulty. But no sign etc had been displayed to warn anyone of this problem.Anyway, my son had/has full Comp insurance, the repairs to his car were paid for, he had to pay the excess until claim was settled. His insurers were provided with CCTV footage showing this incident along with some photos. To date my son has still not had his excess paid back to him as the Gym are denying responsabilty. My son's insurers informed him they were going to take legal action against the Gym, my son has now had a letter from his insurers solicitors which I have typed in the basics below: Dear Sir, ACCIDENT DATE: 2nd Aug 2007 I would refer to the above and would confirm that I have been unable to recieve settlement of your claim, it will be necessary to commence County Court Proceedings against the Third party in an attempt to resolve this issue, I attach 3 draft copies of the Court Claim form and particulars of claim that have been prepared on your behalf by ourselves. At the end of the claim form and also at the end of the particulars of the claim you will find there is a paragraph which states that you belive the contents of the statement to be true. It is important tha he whole of your statement is correct and accurate as to give a false statement to the other party or the court is a crimial offence (and it goes on about fines etc, etc) You may be expected to attend a small claims hearing to give evidence, the statement attached will form the basis of you evidence. If you are not prepared to attend the haering please let us know as we would recommend not to proceed with the claim, if you state you are prepared to attend then change your mind once court proceedings have started then your legal expenses insurance will not meet any costs incurred and you will be personally responsable for them. Attached is a form for you to sign to confirm that you are prepared to attend the court if required. Regards..... It seems that they intend to file this claim in Worksop, my son lives in London. On the court claim form thay state that the claim is limited to £3000, then show amount for court cost as £85.00, then in Solicitors costs the say ' to be assessed ' On the attached statement they claim Negligence by the 3rd party (and provide details) They the have put another header on the statement which is called ' particulars of Loss and Damage and they state the following: Excess.......£300 Insurers Outlay...... £1613 Incidental expenses.....£35 Total ..... £1948 They then say £50 for inconvenience. Then under another Header of ' And the Claimant Claims' 1) Damages limited to £3000 2) Interest (blah blah) £107 3) Interest on unspecifed damages (no Amount shown) 4) Costs on the standard basis I hope that this has not gone on to long and we have bored you..... but we are both a bit confused... Is this the way it should work, shouldn' my Sons Insurers be the ones that take the 3rd party to court?? why would my son be claiming the money back for his insurance company? If it is correct, the court is a long way off, could it not be lodged more locally? would my son be able to claim loss of earnings/and or travel costs? And lastly, we do not know what the solicitors are going to charge, so at the end of it all, if my son wins and gets £3000, then pays his insurers back what they have paid out, could the solicitors say that their costs are equal to or more than the rest of the money he gets? and Of ouse what happens if he losses.... will he have to pay out from his own pocket for anything?? I just thought that the insurance companies should be fighting this out between themselves, isnt that what we are paying our premiums for? Would be really grateful of someone could clarify some things for us so that at least we have a better understanding and dont do something that could cost us.

What now, I am getting really angry....... After all that went on above, LBA sent to Littlewoods etc, it seems my son did not file in the court because he actually got a letter back from Littlewoods (although it was quite a while after sending the LBA, but he was having some problems so could not file in the court) But letter from Littlewoods said that they were investigating his claim but this could take about 8 weeks.... so he waited, but he did notice in the meantime the default on his credit file had been removed. He did not hear back from Littlewoods ,so he contacted them again referring to their letter, a few weeks ago they wrote again and said that they were still investigating his claim and would contact him when their investigations were completed. Last week my son has recieved a letter from Brian Carters Solicitors telling him to pay up, he got another letter this morning from the solicitors telling him that he has ' 7 days to pay the full amount or court proceedings would begin'.... He phoned the solicitors this morning saying that Littlewwods were breaking the law by passing on his info yet again while the debt is in dispute, the solicitors have told him it had been passed on to them by another debt collection agency, so my son also explained that they had also been contacted themselves quite a while ago and had also been informed that the debt was in dispute so Littleowoods should not have contacted them. Well according to the solicitors this morning ' Littlewoods are not breaking any law, they are able to pass on info, even if an account is in dispute, they also say that a credit agreement is not needed by law when you purchase items via the phone or online,. they have told my son to 'Pay the whole amount today or they will file in court in the next 7 days' Have I got things wrong here............. should I write to this solicitors (like the ones before) pointing out the account is in dispute etc, and should i contact Littlewoods again telling them that they have not had the decency to let me know what is happening regarding their investigation into my dispute and let them know that I will certainly file with the court next week?? Thought that if I write these letters they might be helpful for the court case??? Or dont we really have a leg to stand on??? I know this has been going on a while... but did think that at long last Littlewoods were at least doing something..... Please any help would be really appreciaited

Hi Buzby, Yes, thanks for that, it seems a good idea, and fair to both parties, more so as the original offer was made last Nov............... Thanks:)

HI Buzby, Many thanks for your reply, you have at least helped me//my friends understand a bit more of how these things work, they were just very concerned that the estate agent was just giving them the run around (although it would not really be in his interests to do this as he also wants the sale for his commission), but they were getting concerned as to if they should consider at this stage to allow another potential buyers veiw the property..... but going by what you have said then I will let them know that they need to just bear with things and let them run there course. Once again, thanks for your help:)

Hi, I wonder if any one can help, I am trying to help some friends get some answers because they dont know which way to turn I will try to explain as briefly as possible but please bear with me if it goes on a bit as I want to try and be as precise as I can..... My friends put their house on the Market early last Nov (2007) by the end of Nov thay had an offer, eventually price was agreed by all parties (this was all prior to HIPS). My friend explained that they had purchased a property abroad and intended to relocate, they were told that the sale would go through very quickly as there was no chain etc on either side. My friends told the agents they would be signing the contract oversea's for the pomise of sale and needed a rough idea of when sale in UK would be completed, they were assured that it would be completed by Mid Jan 2008. They duly signed Promise of Sale overseas and had a completion date for that property in Mid Feb. The lady concerned resigned from work, then after Chrsitmas they were told once again that Mid Jan would be completion time, so they started to put their stuff into storage. mid Jan approached...nothing, Estate agent assured them that buyer really wants the place but now looked as if it would be delayed until mid/end of Feb, so my friends applied (and managed to get) an extension on the promise of sale abroad, they were going to have this extension until the end of FEb, but when the Agent from overseas spoke with the UK Estate Agent he was told that it would all most certainly be completed by the 9th March, so the extension was arranged for that date. In the UK still nothing has happened, my friends have had no feedback, their solicitors just say it has nothing to do with them as it relates to the transfer of the money. When they can get hold of the agent he says there is no problem just a delay with the transfer of money for the buyer. Now the agent form overseas has spoken again with the UK agent and he was told that the buyer had problems with the mortgage because he normally dealt with Northern Rock.............. They then went on and told him that a couple of weeks ago the buyer approached another lender and eveything is working out ok and all is being processed (they have still not told the seller/my friends this.) They also told the overseas agent that everything will be completed now by the 14th Mar............ Agent overseas not sure if he will be able to obtain a further extension on the promise of Sale there. My friends managed to speak with the estate agent in the UK (he still has not metioned to them about the buyer going somewhere else for a mortgage) and he has told them that he is 90% certain that all will be completed by the 14th Mar:mad: My questions/concerns are as follows: If the buyer did go somewhere else for a Mortgage a couple of weeks ago, surely by now he would know if this has been approved? If this has been approved, then why would there need to be a further delay? If it has not yet been approved, what is the normal time frame when applying for a mortgage before you are informed if you can have it? Why is the agent telling my friends that he is only 90% sure that ecverthing will be completed by the 14th Mar?? And is their solicitor legally able to find out if the buyer does have a mortgage or not? Also would the buyer have had to pay any sort of deposit by now (dont know if this is done of not in the UK)? Sorry if I have gone on a bit, but as you can image my friends are so stressed because they are having to look at bridging loans etc, which as we all know are expensive....and they do not have a clue as to what is going on, should they ask the agent to start letting others view the property again??? where can they go to get the answers that they need, or is this completely normal? Please could someone offer some advice/help, would really appreciate it. Thanks in advance

Hi, Sorry about that, info is about the PC that I am thinking of buying from a friend..... which already has Vista installed, thats where my problem now seems to be .... all will be ok with Modem and router etc.... but it's do I or dont I go ahead and buy this PC with Vista I will now have to sit and think real hard.........

Hi, Thanks everyone for all you comments, all have been noted, so I think that my router issue etc will be ok.... but now I am a little concerned about using Vista....... sounds as if I could be acusing myself other issues???? Funhat, I thought that I would let you know the specs of the PC, and wondered if then you might be able to tell me if Vista would be an issue on this PC: Base : - Intel® Celeron® D Processor 347 (3.06GHz, 533FSB, 512k cache) Memory: - 2048MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz [4x512] Memory Operating System : - Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Basic - English Video Card : - Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3000 Hard Drive: - 160GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB dataBurst™ cache Floppy Drives : - Internal 13-in-1 Media Card Reader Cd/DvD Drives: - 16X DVD+/-RW Drive Sound Cards: - Integrated Audio with Dolby Digital 7.1 capability Now what should I do:confused:

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me at all, I am currently considering switching from XP to VIsta. I have checked with my service provider that all will be ok with my current modem, they have assurred me that the modem is compatible, which is great. But my concern is that I have a LAN and am using a wireless router.... and I want to run one PC with Vista and keep the other on XP, my service provider has told me that they do not know if the router will support running 2 different operating systems (or even just vista alone). This is all way out of my depth so I was wondering if someone would be able to advise, my Router is MSI Wireless-G (Model- RG54G3) By the way I do not use this router as wireless currently, but have cable connections (always been a bit wary of wireless stuff ) I hope that I have not made myself look too stupid but I really only ' use ' the computer as such and have very little knowledge of the hardware. Any help would be much appreciated:)

Well just to keep everyone up to date..... STILL HAVE NOT HEARD A THING FROM LITTLEWOODS!!!!!!!!!!!! 14 Days have well and truly passed since the LBA......... I suppose now that we will file with the court:sad:

Many thanks for letting me know about this, ( I live abroad and do the letters etc for my son and then email all stuff to him). I will keep my eye on the website and wait until all is ok. X

Hi All, Ok now I am ready to go ahead with the Letter Before Action. I have amended the letter slightly and was wondering if someone could just check it out for me and let me know if I should add more etc or if its ok as is: Littlewoods Finance Company Ltd Aintree Innovation Centre Park Lane, Netherton Bootle L30 1SL LETTER BEFORE ACTION Dear Sir/Madam, ACCOUNT NUMBER xxxxxxxxxx I am very disappointed that you have failed to respond constructively to any of my previous the requests, and indeed have not even bothered to contact me at all. I would also like to point out, that in my last communication with yourselves dated 5th Sept 2007, I was informing you that I intend to take this matter further and was offering you the opportunity once again to provide to me the reason that you continue to harass me for this debt, pass on my information to third parties without there being a True Signed Copy of a Credit Agreement in place. Which I point out once again that I have requested a copy of this on many occasions , all of these requests have been totally disregarded which can only leave me to believe that no such agreement exists. I understand that the regime of fees, insurance and interest, which you have been applying to my account are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and Consumer regulations when no Signed Credit Agreement is in place. I calculate that to date, you have received from me £221.06 over and above the value of goods purchased from your company, this sum being made up of additional charges, plus £10.00 which you have charged me for my SAR request, giving a total of £231.06. I am enclosing a copy of the schedule of the charges which I am claiming. I have already sent you a copy of this in my original letter of the 05/09/07. I also request that the 'Outstanding Debt' of £395.33 that you claim I still owe should be removed from the account. I require repayment in full of this money by cheque. If you do not comply fully within 14 days then I shall begin a claim against you for the full amount plus interest, plus my costs and without further notice. Furthermore, I shall submit a Consumer Credit Act 1974 complaint to the OFT. Yours faithfully, Thought it would be better if I could send this directly to the person who controls the department..... Dont suppose anyone knows the name of the Financial controller for Littlewoods Finance Company????? Also thought that we would pay and send this Guarenteed Next day delivery (think it costs about 4.00) thought that at this stage it would be better because so far all letters have been sent recorded and not one of them has ever shown up as having been signed for....although the CCA was received because they did answer that letter, but they have ignored every other communication since:evil: Will also follow up and speak with the Credit Agency . Any comments anyone please;)